Student who created Jonathan’s parody account released after 82 days

Olusola Babatunde, a young man who was arrested by the police for creating a parody account of ex-President Goodluck Jonathan, has been released.

He was released from the custody of the Force Criminal Investigation Department (FCID), Abuja, on Tuesday.

Babatunde, a final year student of Ladoke Akintola University, Ogbomoso, told journalists he was detained by the police for 82 days and nearly contracted COVID-19 while in detention at the FCID facility.

He said several suspects were cramped up in small cells in contravention of the COVID-19 guidelines.

The man, however, said he was never tortured by policemen and was fed twice a day like other suspects.

Babatunde said: “There was no social distancing in detention. I guess the people in the cells are exceptional. It is like COVID-19 doesn’t infect them and this is despite the fact that new suspects are brought in every day without testing.

“However, we had an incident just once. There was a Chinese man who was a gold miner who fell ill. He was taken to a hospital and tested positive for COVID-19 so he was hurriedly released.

“He was in the Force Intelligence Bureau department so only the suspects in that cell were tested. We were all at risk of getting infected with COVID-19.”

“It wasn’t easy. I spent 82 days in detention and I was transferred to three different cells. I wore the same clothes for 82 days.”

The student also expressed disappointment that the ex-president ordered his arrest despite being one of his biggest supporters.

He added: “The funny thing is that I even tweeted good things about Goodluck Jonathan a few weeks before my arrest. I said Jonathan’s administration was better than that of the current president. So, I was shocked but this is Nigeria.”